There is something about the honey colored reflections of the sun as it reflects along the water, through windows, and into your home that makes us all melt when we notice it. It creates the shadows in the air that highlight dander and lint, and can make the most mundane room seem like an enchanted far away location.

As a photographer, I notice light. It’s movement, it’s nuance, it’s depth in the darkest places. I catch myself looking out of the corner of my eye watching for the shadows, highlights, and lows as the sun rises and falls through the day trickling through the obstacles in its path.

The light on the particular afternoon I created this Fresh Muddled Blueberry Margarita Cocktail, was warm and lush. Inviting me to curl up and spend an afternoon reading and unwinding. For a moment the melting of the sun into the western horizon bounced off the surroundings just right to create a warm glow in this eastern facing room. The whole environment transformed. I’d been sitting on this cocktail idea since I’d traveled to Saguenay Lac-SaintJean in Canada and smuggled home some natural blueberry juice from their rolling fields.

The moment seemed perfect and I grabbed my tequila and camera.

There’s been a lot of change recently. Life sped up, things got crazy and chaotic. It limited how many things I could work on without sacrificing their authenticity. It stifled creativity and strained me. It pushed me down and I felt like things were getting too heavy. But I never stopped watching the light.

In the darkest corners, on the gloomy mornings, on the heavy days, my eyes were still tracing the rays of the sun as it found ways to poke through even the heaviest of clouds and filter my views. It was the reminder that I needed to keep pushing. The reminder to myself that this is what I do, at my core, what I love, and to keep going.

To just show up.

To accept and give myself the grace to do what I could and to be alright with it. To be proud of that one thing I could do through the chaos. To always see the light. To always pause to reflect on how the sun warms the moments, transforms a place, can steady a scene or erupt it into fire.

It will always be there, it’s just a matter of whether or not I pause to see it; to appreciate it.

Fresh Muddled Blueberry Margarita Cocktail Recipe

Yield: 2 cocktails

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

Salt for rim

2 oz Tequila Añejo

2 oz Agavero Tequila Liqueur

1 oz triple sec

100 % Natural Wild Blueberry Juice

Fresh Wild Blueberries

1 Charred Lemon

Instructions

Salt the rim of your glasses, using the juice of the charred lemon, if desired. Place ice cubes in the glasses.

Add a few blueberries to each glass over the ice. Shake the cocktail shaker and strain over the ice into the glasses.

Serve with slices of the charred lemons as garnish.

Notes

To char the lemon, simply char a lemon, sliced in half, over an open flame on a grill or with caution on a gas stove top. Otherwise, heat an iron skillet to high and char the lemon, cut side down, until browned and crisping.